From Chesney's bum to a Cummerbund

The weather's turned very wintry, indeed. We had slushy snow yesterday morning, there was a frost overnight (-1C/29F), and we're not expecting any temperatures in double-figures (C) for a few days. Yuk.

To cheer ourselves up a bit, how about a little selection of some of the "newer" choons that have caught my ear of late?

How about we start with quite a surprise - the return of 1990s "one-hit wonder" Chesney Hawkes... with a decent song and a rather faboo "Saltburn-spoofing" video (with several flashes of his arse) to boot!

Chesney Hawkes - Get A Hold Of Yourself

House favourites here at Dolores Delargo Towers Duran Duran are still going strong - even with a cover of an old ELO song, they still hit the spot!

Duran Duran - Evil Woman

[And at 6pm GMT, you can click here for the official premiere of the band on stage at Madison Square Gardens in New York performing this very song]

Now for something completely different - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as you have probably never heard him before...

Sarahbanda - Rondo alla Rumba [Mozart y Mambo]

Speaking of updated versions of old classics, this:

Pet Shop Boys - All The Young Dudes

Something that pricked my ears up, when I heard it on the radio the other day, turned out not to be new at all (in fact one commenter remarked it was "2019's best 80s song"), but it's new to me, so that's all that matters!

Georgia - About Work The Dancefloor

Another "hangover" from Hallowe'en - how about Alice Cooper vs Bruno Mars... vs Gene Wilder and his monster?! Genius:

DJ Cummerbund - Uptown Frank

[RIP, Teri Garr]

Leaving the best to last (as is my wont), Dame Sophie does it again [with a superb video, a "sequel" to her huge 2001 (and again in 2024 thanks to the aforementioned Saltburn) hit Murder On The Dancefloor, complete with the same judging panel, and again filmed in the camp-as-tits Rivoli Ballroom]!

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Freedom Of The Night

As ever, dear reader - let me know your thoughts...

When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery

It's been a hell of a year for great shows - and Saturday's trip to see the latest in a series of Sacha Regan's all-male Gilbert & Sullivan operettas at Wilton's Music Hall, The Pirates of Penzance (or, The Slave of Duty) was an absolute triumph!

My sister and I had, of course, planned it as a treat for our Mother's 89th birthday and - thankfully - she loved it.

What's not to love, really, when the innate campery of this G&S proto-pantomime is enhanced by the fact that all parts - be they "butch" pirates [led by the very lovely Tom Newland as "Pirate King"], comedic policemen or pretty maidens - are portrayed completely in character by a troupe of cute young men? This is not drag; the audience is invited to suspend disbelief and - with some near-perfect operatic voices on show, not least the falsetto/soprano of Luke Garner-Greene as "Mabel" - it all-but succeeds.

The story? Typically improbable - the ENO handily sums it up thus:

...so let’s get this straight: there are pirates, who take pity on orphans, and are really peers of the realm. There’s a 21-year-old called Frederic, who has sworn to put the pirates behind bars, and is really only 5. And there are policemen, whose lot is not a happy one, and are really, really hopeless at foiling felons... Got that?

Confused? You will be. Basically, everyone's pretty inept, and it is around such characters all good farcical comedy revolves!

The Nurse "Ruth" [played with aplomb by Robert Wilkes], being a bit deaf, mistook "apprenticeship as a pilot" with "pirate", and that's how the poor lad got there in the first place:

Patricia Routledge - When Frederic Was A Little Lad [New York Shakespeare Festival, 1980)

Frederic [played by chisel-jawed Cameron McAllister] is a bit of a wuss, and after finding out that not all women look like Ruth, goes and falls for the first girl he sees (or rather she, alone among her sisters, allows him to woo her):

Kayla Wilkens, Vegas City Opera - Poor Wand'ring One

The Major-General [the girls' father, played to perfection by David McKechnie] is good at everything... except his job as head of an army:

Douglas Chamberlain - I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General [Stratford Festival, Canada, 1985]

[Lyrics here if you want to sing along]

...and as for the policemen [who, led by Lewis Kennedy, at Wilton's all had false moustaches on sticks and the most comical choreography], well, the Pirate King had them quaking in their boots!

Tony Azito - When A Felon's Not Engaged in His Employment (A Policeman's Lot Is Not A Happy One)

Farce and campness abounds! Frederic's belief that he owed no further duty to the pirates - and would therefore become their foe - comes unstuck when Nurse reveals that he was born in a leap year on 29 February, therefore his 21st birthday (at which his indenture to them would end) is not technically due until 1940.

The Major-General's pretence at being an orphan, and therefore not a target for the pirates, comes unstuck - and they mount a raid (much to the dismay of the policemen) on his house and his daughters. Suddenly, at the point of a sword, the Major-General swears an oath to Queen Victoria, the pirates all bow to their knee, and their real-life noble birth is revealed. They all go off to Westminster, the daughters as brides, Frederic is free to wed Mabel, and they all live happily every after.

Whew.

Brilliant comedy, brilliant players, superb choreography - it was a tremendous production all round! We agreed, this was one of those shows we'd cheerfully go and see again.

Unfortunately Pirates of Penzance is only at Wilton's Music Hall until Sunday 23rd November 2024, before it's off continuing its tour of the country. Catch it if you can!

[All photos: Mark Senior]

Remember-member-member

Monday mood? Bette Davis. With a gun.

Sigh. Here we go again. Back to the office, too soon, too soon...

Never mind all that! Let's take a little timeslip back half-a-century to 1974, the year in which Queen, Abba, Cockney Rebel, Barry White, The Three Degrees and Leo Sayer first made it big in our charts, Glam Rock hit its peak, Bay City Rollers-mania went completely OTT, Soul music began its earliest transition to Disco - and a cosy stop-motion children's animation series based upon Elisabeth Beresford's books gave birth...

...to this! How very apt for a Tacky Music Monday:

The Wombles - Remember You`re a Womble

Gulp.

[Bizarrely, the band was revived for an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2011!]

Have a good week, dear reader.

Do me like you done before

Another fairly slow day (a lie-in, a bit of pottering and spot-watering in the garden, but largely sedentary), after Mother's visit - and Gilbert & Sullivan, to boot [more on that later, no doubt] - yesterday.

As is my wont, something by our "house band" here at Dolores Delargo Towers seems in order:

Postmodern Jukebox ft. Veronica Swift - Rag Doll (Aerosmith 1920s Hot Jazz Cover)

Perfection.

[Here's the original in case anyone (like me) has never heard it before...]

All is prepar'd; your gallant crew await you

We're off to the faboo Wilton's Music Hall this afternoon for a matinee showing of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance (another in a series of Sasha Regan's all-male productions - see here for The Mikado, and here for HMS Pinafore), as a treat for The Mother's 89th birthday!

I can't wait!!

I see life and light. All the colours of the world...

Get that booze on ice!

Only a few hours to go, and another excruciatingly busy week in work will be over...

Meanwhile, here's a little amuse bouche for the party mood to come, courtesy of that remarkable Italian vocalist "Moony" - whose solo hit The Dove is an eternal fave - and her fantabulosa first appearance in our charts.

DB Boulevard - Point Of View

Thank Disco(?) It's Friday!

Have a great weekend, peeps!

On whom those truths do rest

Anyone shedding any tears for the departure of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby under a cloud? Not me.

It's another "snippets" post today, dear reader...

• Somebody hire a proof-reader news: The web address of a porn site was inadvertently(?) printed on the packaging of the Xmas "little girl must-have" Wicked dolls!
• Wobbly sets and under-rehearsed actors news: It is 60 years since the very first episode of long-running, and very successful while it lasted, British soap opera Crossroads was broadcast. Such was its iconic "national treasure" status, it - and its star Noele Gordon aka "Meg Richardson" - was the subject of the fabulous Nolly, starring Helena Bonham-Carter.
• Astronomical double-entendre news: There's a new probe into Uranus. Apparently there could be hidden life there...
• Scissor Sisters news:

Scissor Sisters News - Nov 12th 2024 (ft Billy Eichner, Jessie Ware, Countess Luann & Amanda Lepore)

• DIY downfall news: Farewell, that iconic home of tools, fittings, paint, gardening and flat-pack furniture Homebase, which has called in the administrators.
• And finally: RIP, the brilliant and commanding Timothy West.

William Wordsworth - Ode: Intimations of Immortality; Timothy West reads the ninth stanza

And the weather? Cold and dry - and a lot better than Andalusia at the moment!